


I'll be Around if You Need Me

by karaluvsketchup



Category: Chicago Med, Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: Chicago PD Season 3 Episode 1, Episode Related, Gen, Halstead bro time, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene, i'm just saying this episode would have been improved by 800 percent more will
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-27
Updated: 2017-01-27
Packaged: 2018-09-20 04:08:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9475076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karaluvsketchup/pseuds/karaluvsketchup
Summary: You know what the first episode of season 3 of Chicago PD needed? A lot more Will Halstead and a lot more Hurt/Comfort.





	

“Dr. Halstead, can I borrow you for a moment?”

 

Will looks up and sees Maggie standing outside the treatment bay where he’s working. He’s halfway through suturing a large laceration on a college kid’s leg, but that can wait a minute so he sets down the needle driver, apologizes to his patient, and steps away from the bed. “Yeah Maggie, what’s up?”

 

“Your brother’s being brought in,” she calmly tells him.

 

Will doesn’t worry about his brother too often, he know’s that Jay’s good at his job and he’s got a good team who watch each other’s backs. At the same time, though, being in Intelligence involves putting yourself at risk much more often than the average cop. “Is he okay? What happened?” He keeps his voice quiet, since they’re in the middle of the ED, but there’s an edge of anxiety that comes through. 

 

“I didn’t get any details, except that he is stable. Ambulance will be here in ten.”

 

“Okay…” He takes a deep breath. “Thanks.”

 

“You want me to find a med student to finish those sutures for you?” Maggie offers after he doesn’t move for a few seconds.

 

“No, that’s fine, I can do it.” She gives his arm a gentle squeeze, then heads back to her station while he returns to his patient.

 

The stitches take a little longer than he’d planned, and by the time he turns his patient over to a nurse to get bandaged up, Jay’s already in a bed, three bays over. There’s a several uniformed CPD officers standing outside the room, but none of the other members of Intelligence seem to be there.

 

“Hey, brother.” Will says, quickly taking in the cuts and bruises on Jay’s face, and more bruises and scrapes and what looks like burn marks on his chest.

 

Jay looks up at Will and offers just the slightest hint of a smile. “Hey. I’m okay.”

 

“What happened?”

 

“Undercover op went bad.” Jay looks down as he says it. Will looks over at Ethan, sensing that Jay’s not really ready to be pressed for details.

 

“It all right if I loop your brother in on everything, Jay?” Ethan asks.

 

“Yeah, of course, doc.”

 

“Thanks.” Ethan says to Jay, then turns to Will. “He’s pretty beat up, lots of contusions and maybe a few cracked ribs. We’re waiting on radiology to be ready for some x-rays and a head CT, but he’s not showing signs of any internal injuries. The burns are from getting hit repeatedly with a stun gun, so I’ve ordered an EKG and we’ll keep an eye on his cardiac enzymes just to be safe.”

 

Will nods. He still hasn’t really gotten an answer to the question of what happened, but his colleague’s evaluation is enough for him to figure it out. Jay was tortured. No wonder he’s acting uncharacteristically withdrawn. “You’re going to be fine, Jay, Dr. Choi knows what he’s doing.”

 

“I don’t doubt it.” Jay tells the two doctors.

 

April comes in carrying a hospital gown. “Radiology can fit you in in a couple of minutes.”

 

“I have to wear that?” Jay protests.

 

“We’ll find you some pajamas to wear after the x-rays, okay?” Will offers. Jay frowns but nods in agreement. “Let me help you change.” Will says, taking the gown from April.

 

“Alright.”

 

“I’ll go find a wheelchair.” April tells them, and she and Ethan leave and pull the curtain in front of the bed.

 

Will locks off and detaches the IV tubing from the cannula in Jay’s forearm so he can get his shirt off. The shirt’s already unbuttoned, and Jay starts trying to take it off himself, but winces when he tries to lift his arms. “Here, I got you,” Will tells him before gently pulling the shirt down off his shoulders and arms. “Have you had any pain meds?” He asks as he puts the shirt down on the foot end of the bed.

 

“I told Ethan I didn’t need any.”

 

“Jay, you can’t lift your arms.”

 

“Strained shoulder muscles. Doesn’t hurt until I try to reach too far.”

 

Will spots the red and purple marks wrapping around his brother’s wrists as he helps him into the hospital gown. Another unpleasant little piece of information about what Jay’s been through. “Okay, and what about all those bruises? And the electrical burns have got to hurt like a bitch.”

 

“I’m just a little sore, Will.” Jay’s looking down again. “I can handle it.”

 

Will reattaches the IV. “You don’t need to be all tough guy about this, man. Just let somebody give you a little morphine.”

 

“I’ll think about it.” Jay concedes. He starts working on taking off his pants underneath the hospital gown, managing to get them to mid-thigh on his own before Will helps him slip them the rest of the way off. “I can leave my boxers on, right?” Jay says hopefully.

 

“Yeah, that’s fine.” Will smiles. At least he can give his brother some kind of good news.

 

April comes in a minute later with the wheelchair. “You ready, Jay?”

 

“Actually,” he tells her, “do you think I could get that pain medication Dr. Choi offered me before I go?”

 

April glances at Will in a way that says either she heard the two of them talking about it, or she just knows that Will has something to do with Jay’s change of heart. “Yeah, I can go grab that really quick, Dr. Choi put an as-needed order in your chart.”

 

“Not too much though.” Jay tells her.

 

“Two milligrams morphine, coming right up.”

 

“Thanks, April.” Will tells her.

 

Will would happily stay by his brother’s side indefinitely, but he’s four hours into a twelve hour shift, and Jay doesn’t need a babysitter. Once Jay’s been medicated and settled into the wheelchair, Will tells him he’ll check in on him soon, then gets back to his own patients.

 

Two cases of strep and a patellar dislocation later, Ethan intercepts Will with some good news. “Jay’s head CT and x-rays both came back clear, and his EKG was completely normal.”

 

“That’s good, that’s really good.” Will grins and Ethan smiles back at him.

 

“Yeah, he’s going to be fine. I’ll admit him for observation and he can go home tomorrow.”

 

“You’re about to go tell him?”

 

“Yeah. Do you want to come with?”

 

“Please.” Ethan nods, and starts walking toward Jay’s room, but Will wants to talk to him a little more first. “Wait, Ethan did he... tell you exactly what happened to him?” 

 

Ethan stops and turns around to face Will again. He nods. “Yeah, I mean, he didn’t give me a blow-by-blow, but I got enough to take care of him.”

 

“He wouldn’t talk about it with me, but he was - well, he looks like he got tortured.”

 

Ethan nods grimly. “Pretty much.”

 

“And most of those bruises look like they happened at least eight or twelve hours ago.” He’s been thinking about this since he helped Jay get changed, and he’s pretty sure.

 

“Yeah. Look, he was captured yesterday, these guys went at him pretty hard with their fists and a stun gun trying to get information out of him, then they kept him overnight.”

 

“God, this happened to him yesterday? And nobody told me then. I can’t believe this.”

 

“Sorry, man.” Ethan puts a hand on Will’s shoulder. “I’m sure they had their reasons.”

 

“I’m the closest family he’s got, you know, he doesn’t talk to our dad. But would I even know about any of this yet if he was at a different hospital?”

 

“Look, he’s exhausted and the trauma’s still fresh, it makes sense that he doesn’t want to open up and tell you all about it right now. I know you’ll be there for him if he needs someone to lean on later.”  Ethan’s probably right, and Will realizes that if he pushes the subject with Jay right now, it’ll be for his own benefit more than his brother’s.

 

“Hey Dr. Choi, I’ve got Sergeant Voight on the phone asking about Detective Halstead.” Maggie calls over from the nurses’ station.

 

“Let me talk to him.” Will tells her, but Ethan holds him back.

 

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea right now.” Ethan tells him.

 

“Jay’s  _ my  _ brother.” Will protests.

 

“And he’s my patient. And you need to cool off a little.” Ethan says firmly. That, and the look Maggie is giving Will, are enough to stop him, though he’s still going to have a bone to pick with Voight later. Ethan goes over and takes the phone. “Sergeant Voight, this is Dr. Choi. - Detective Halstead is doing fine, he doesn’t have any life-threatening injuries, and he should make a full recovery in a couple of weeks. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Okay, I’ll tell him that. - Goodbye, sir.” He hangs up the phone and turns back to Will. “Intelligence is on their way. Let’s go talk to Jay.”

 

The two of them go find Jay, who’s now dressed in a pair of light blue pajama pants, sitting up on the gurney as April bandages the burns on his back. “How are you feeling, Jay?” Ethan asks.

 

“Better.”

 

“That’s good to hear. Now, I’ve just gotten your CT and x-rays back, and it looks like you don’t have any internal injuries. You’ll obviously be sore for a while still, but you’re going to be fine.”

 

“That’s great.” Jay says, relieved.

 

“I still do want to admit you to the hospital.” Ethan continues.

 

Jay looks over at Will, probably wanting him to disagree, but Will doesn’t. “He’s right, with what your body’s been through, you should be kept overnight for observation.”

 

“Okay.” Jay says.

 

“If everything still looks good tomorrow morning, you can go home,” Ethan assures him. “Do you have any questions?” Jay shakes his head. “Alright, I just spoke to Sergeant Voight and he said he’ll be here soon.”

 

“Thanks.”

 

Ethan excuses himself, but Will stays. “I’ll take care of that cut on your forehead, if that’s okay.”

 

“What, you think it needs your plastic surgery skills?” Jay jokes. 

 

It clearly doesn’t, in fact it doesn’t even need stitches and even a third-year med student could handle cleaning it and putting on a few steri-strips. “Well no, but I want to do it.”

 

“Fine with me.”

 

“Here.” April says, handing Will what he’ll need to treat the cut. Someone’s already cleaned most of the blood off of Jay’s face, but there’s still a few traces left, so Will starts by moistening some gauze with sterile saline and gently wiping the rest of the red away, starting at the cut and working outward from there.

 

“So, how much do I need to yell at Voight when he gets here?” Will asks Jay as he works.

 

“Will, don’t.”

 

“Did you know I had no idea anything had happened until you were in an ambulance on the way here?”

 

“So do you want to yell at Voight because I got hurt on the job, or because he didn’t tell you?”

 

Will trades the gauze for an iodine swab and starts dabbing at the laceration itself. “I could have… I don’t know, helped out somehow.”

 

Jay sighs. “I’m sorry, man, Voight can be an ass, but he knows what he’s doing. My team got me out of there, and you going off at them isn’t going to do any good right now.”

 

“Fine. If you insist. Now hold still for a minute.”

 

“Sure.”

 

Will places five steri-strips on Jay’s forehead, perfectly aligning the edges of the wound. “All done, that shouldn’t leave a scar,” he declares.

 

“If you want an excuse to stick around, you can help dress the rest of these burns.” April offers.

 

“Sure, Maggie knows where to find me if anybody else needs me.”

 

April’s done with Jay’s back so they get him comfortably reclined against a couple of pillows and they start working on the burns on his chest and abdomen. The three of them keep up light conversation throughout, not revisiting the topic of Voight or the ordeal that Jay’s been through. When they’re done, Will and April help Jay into a t-shirt, then leave him to get some rest.  “Hang in there, Dr. Halstead,” she tells Will once they’re out of the room.

 

He asks Maggie to let him know when Voight’s there, then he has one patient who’s ready to release and another to go over some test results with, so he gets back to work. When he comes out of the second patient’s room, Maggie gets his attention and indicates that Voight’s with Jay.

 

Will’s surprised to see that Erin Lindsay’s also in there, standing right next to Jay’s shoulder, wrapped in a CPD windbreaker. A few months ago, it would have been a given for her to be there, but last he knew Jay and Erin’s relationship, both personally and professionally, was on hold indefinitely. The three of them are talking quietly, but they look up when Will enters the room.

 

“Sergeant Voight, Detective Lindsay.” He greets them. Voight offers a hand to shake and Will takes it.

 

“Will, I owe you an apology.” Voight says. Will raises his eyebrows, wondering if Jay’s already told Voight that Will’s upset at him. Or more likely, he didn’t need to be told. “You should have heard about this from a member of my team.”

 

“Well, I would have preferred it that way.” Will says, taken aback. Now that Voight’s come straight out and said it, it’s easier for Will to do as his brother wanted, avoiding getting confrontational with the man. “I’m just glad you guys got him back in one piece.”

 

“Yeah, so are we.” Erin gently agrees.

 

“So… you got the guys?” Will asks.

 

“All in custody or dead, Will.” Jay answers. “They got ‘em.”

 

“Good, well, I’ll leave you three to it.” Will says a little awkwardly. “I’ll be around if you need me.”

 

Voight thanks Will and he slides the door shut on his way out and then goes to the doctors’ lounge for some coffee and a little peace and quiet. Being in there by himself isn’t really helping his state of mind, though, so after a fifteen-minute breather he heads back out and gets to work again. He knows that Maggie’s been keeping his workload light in the few hours since Jay came in, and he thanks her for that but asks her to stop doing it.

 

“In that case, I’ve got an abdominal pain in four for you.” She tells him.

 

“Fantastic.” He glances over the chart and heads to the room to start what ends up being an extensive workup. The rest of his shift actually manages to be pretty normal, aside from a few trips upstairs to check in on his brother. Jay sleeps through the afternoon, so Will’s visits end up just being a glance into his room and an update from the nurses before he goes back down to the ED. Finally, the end of his shift comes around, and he heads back up and finds Jay sitting up in bed watching baseball on TV.

 

“We’re up by one.” Jay tells Will as he walks in and takes a seat.

 

“You look a lot better.” Will says, and means it - while the bruises on his face are a bit darker than they were that morning, his overall color is better and he seems more himself.

 

“I feel better too, I needed the nap. Didn’t really get a chance to sleep last night.”

 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Will asks, sensing that his brother’s ready now.

 

“It’s just one of those things, our CI didn’t do things according to plan, we got made, he got killed, and the guys couldn’t get to me on time.”

 

“That was yesterday?”

 

Jay nods. “They dragged me off, tried to get me to talk. That’s when most of this happened.” He says, indicating his face and chest. “It’s not like I’ve never taken a beating before, but this was… they had me chained up, they kept hitting me with the stun gun...” Jay’s voice stays steady, but his eyes are shiny like he’s holding back tears. Will scoots his chair forward until he can reach over and grasp his brother’s shoulder, gently massaging with his thumb.

 

“I’m sorry, man.” 

 

“Yeah, it was bad. Eventually they give up, and I think that’s when this guy calls Voight to set up an exchange. Then they leave me in the basement of this house overnight, when they bring me out Erin’s there.”   
  


“So they made the trade?”

 

Jay shakes his head. “Wasn’t that easy. What they wanted was all of our CI’s files, and that… could have meant trading dozens of lives for mine, it wasn’t going to happen. They put together good enough fakes to get her in the door, but these guys were smart enough to check them before letting us go. I was already injured, I still had my hands bound, she only had a small knife, I did what I could but Erin really… I wouldn’t have made it out of there alive without her.”

 

“Wow.”

 

“Yeah. She’s really something.” Jay says fondly.

 

“Not trying to change the subject, but what’s the deal with her, is she back?” Will wonders.

 

“TBD, I think. I still don’t know where her head’s at, and even if she wants back in Voight doesn’t have to let her.”   
  


“Well, it sounds like today’s gotta count for something on that front.”

 

“I hope so.”

 

Will sticks around for a while, but when the ballgame is over, Jay tells him he can go.

 

“What, you think I have somewhere better to be?” Will asks.

 

“Why don’t you go down to Molly’s?” Jay suggests. “Have a few drinks, let whoever’s there know that I’m okay.”

 

After the day he’s had, Will could use a beer. “If you insist.”

 

“Tell them that I’ll be right back after a week of medical leave.”

  
“Alright, brother. See you in the morning.”


End file.
